Transformation Garden - Dec. 10, 2009

"And Samuel said unto the people, ‘Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart…For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name's sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people.'" I Samuel 12: 20, 22, King James Version

EXPLORATION:

"His Great Name's Sake"

"Don't be afraid of anything. Do not ever be afraid. And don't worry. So long as you remain sincerely penitent, God will forgive you everything. There's no sin, and there can be no sin in the whole world which God will not forgive to those who are truly repentant…Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem everything in the world by it." Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Brothers Karamzov

What do I believe God has done for me in my life, "For His Great Name's Sake?"

"Dear Lord and Father of mankind, Forgive our foolish ways! Reclothe us in our rightful mind, In purer lives Thy service find, In deeper reverence praise." John Greenleaf Whittier

INSPIRATION:

"…As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103: 12, K.J.V.

Each summer in our city there is a two week festival of Shakespeare plays acted on an outdoor stage that has been converted into a theatre. While I have enjoyed the plays, what interests me the most is the ability to watch the stagehands redo the settings in order that the play is set in its proper perspective. For it is the background which gives the character to each scene.

Chapter 12 in I Samuel provides a setting, the landscape scenery, which helps us get a better visual picture of what was going on before and during the time when Samuel's rule as a judge concluded and Saul's rulership as king began.

Having a great deal of unhappiness because Israel demanded a king, God had warned that the rulership of a king would bring heartache to His children. But instead of saying, "Our Father must know what He's talking about," God's children plowed ahead, unwilling to follow their Father's guiding hand.

Yet, with this complete defiance of God's will, God didn't react like I might of. Rather He forgave His children. It's as though the stagehands removed the scenery of demanding arrogance and replaced it with God's unfathomable love. It is in this setting that leaders like Saul, David and Solomon, all who were disobedient and arrogant during their rules, were also blessed by the forgiveness of a Father who does the same thing for you and me.

This is the setting of I Samuel 12. A setting filled with God's forgiveness not because of His children's goodness but because of His greatness. How thankful we should be.

"If God were not willing to forgive sin, heaven would be empty." German Proverb

AFFIRMATION:

"O Lord, give me strength to refrain from the unkind silence that is born of hardness of heart; the unkind silence that clouds the serenity of understanding and is the enemy of peace.

Give me strength to be the first to tender the healing word and the renewal of friendship, that the bonds of amity and the flow of charity may be strengthened for the good of Thy eternal, loving purpose." Cecil Hunt

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